2. Google Earth


The goal of this activity is for each student to download the most current version of Google Earth, become familiar with the controls and features and create a map that shows, with a marker their home, the school and measures the distance between the two locations. Students will create a .kmz file and post it on their personal wiki's Students will record the longitude and latitude of these two locations and work on a method for determing the polar circumference of the earth using easily collected data.

1) Download latest version of Google Earth
http://pack.google.com/intl/en/integrated_eula.html?hl=en&ciint=ci_earth&ci_earth=on&utm_source=en-cdr-earth4&utm_medium=cdr&utm_campaign=e
2) Open it and make sure you know how to use the navigation tools (upper right)3) Get to know Google Earth features - http://earth.google.com/tour.html and http://www.google.com/educators/start_earth.html4) Place a marker on your home and Label it eg. "Suzy's house"5) Record the longitute and latitude in all available formats (you can do this by adding them to the marker lab


  • Coordinates of "Tara's House":
    • 35°22'48.76"N
    • 81°22'53.94"W

6) Repeat 4 & 5 for your dorm (except change the marker name eg. "Suzy's dorm"


  • Coordinates of "Tara's Dorm":
    • 36° 1'5.75"N
    • 78°55'16.51"W

7) Draw a line on the map between your home and your dorm and use the measuring tool to measure and record the distance in miles and kilometers
  • 145.02 Miles
  • 233.39 Kilometers

8) Save the map to your desktop (it will have a .kmz extension).9) Post the map on your personal wiki page

My House to My Dorm: